The day that the Waldo Canyon Fire came over of the ridge

Pictures of Waldo Canyon Fire

This morning I interviewed Ken Hughlett who works in Emergency Management for the utility company. During the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires Ken was the director of the Emergency Center. During the Black Forest he was helping to manage the evacuations and trying to figure out what neighborhoods should go on evacuations depending on the direction of the fire. People knew that their was a potential that the Waldo Canyon fire could come over the ridge, but people did not expect the fire to come over as quick and fast as it did. With Waldo Canyon fire the response was slower, because the firefighters had hike to and find the fire in the Waldo Canyon. Black Forest was easier to get to, because there is lots of access to the Black Forest. Since both fires there are better response plans and to send multiple resources. The goal is fore another fire is to act quicker and respond quicker to the fire. Ken mentioned that foe both fires we used resources from across the country and within the state of Colorado. Then we also used military resources like the National Guard and resources from Fort Carson an Army base in southern Colorado Springs. When I asked Ken what people can do to help prevent fires especially in the forest area. People can do better forest management around their houses especially with the dead trees which would reduce the fire load. Zeroscaping will also help, but mulch still catches on fire and then can burn the house so making sure that the mulch is further away from the house so the firefighters can fight fire around the house and save the house. Both fires affected Ken professionally, because it changed the functions in the utilities operation center. Moisture is a delicate process, because when we have a ton of moisture there is growth and it creates certain fuels for a fire.  

My second interview was with Erin who worked in Emergency Operations Center for ten days during the Waldo Canyon Fire and now Erin works in Emergency Management, which was her role during the Black Forest Fire. There were a lot of lessons learned from the Waldo Canyon fire that helped them when the Black Forest Fire happened.  Erin was relaying messages from the firefighters to the people briefing and letting them know what neighborhoods needed to evacuate. The Black Forest fire was known as a type one incident. Some people think that little amounts of moisture will help us, but it will only help out a little bit. Prolonged climate change affects the likelihood of wildfires in the state. Even with a ton of snow their could a wildfire burning under the snow which is consider deep moisture, but there is a difference fuels like if the grass is completely dry or if it has a ton of moisture. Erin mentioned that there were no community meetings after 2013, because there was a comfort level heavy rain. With the Black Forest Fire there was quicker respond time to fire than there was at the Waldo Canyon Fire. The Waldo Canyon Fire nobody expected the fire to come over the ridge and because it caught everybody by surprise it took time to get resources in place and there were not enough resources at first. For the Black Forest Fire there were quicker response from everyone including the military and communication. With the Spring Fire when it first started had the same characteristics of when Waldo Canyon Fire and Black Forest Fire, but the Spring Fire has more characteristics of the Waldo Canyon fire like iritic behavior that firefighters do not usually see in fires. During the summer of 2012 and 2013 they did not run out of water in reservoirs, but there was a concern about rampart reservoirs, because the water could have been contaminated for drinking water. 

Today I conducted two interviews one with Linda and the other interview was with Erin. Linda lived in Mountain Shadows, which was evacuation zone 2, and her dad lived in another part of Mountain shadows, which was evacuation zone 1. Linda’s dad lost everything in the Waldo Canyon Fire it took him six months to rebuild after the fire. He did rebuild in the same place.  Her dad had his car and a suitcase, because he was visiting her sister in a different state. After the Waldo Canyon Fire fire there was a program called Colorado Springs Together, which provided resources for people who lost anything in the Waldo Canyon Fire. Linda works in Emergency Response Management at the Colorado Springs Utilities. After the fire the codes had changed on rebuilding their houses. There was a short time with coordination and planning. The Waldo Canyon fire was an eye-awakening event for the utilities of Colorado Springs. They also wanted to help the people who were evacuated and what there needs were especially for the people who lost everything. The organizations helped with those needs. Multiple people were working around the clock to help the firefighters or contributing in other ways. There were multiple companies also helping out with supplies and resources. Rampart reservoir did have enough water to help with putting out the fire Linda did mention that there were not that many planes flying to grab the water to put on the fire. Linda mentioned that a lot of people learned from the fires and the community needs to become more aware and needs to trust more as well. From the fire there were a lot of reactions with properties being at ground zero and power lost and not being able to open garage doors. When the Black Forest fire happened there was no Colorado Springs Together. Linda had a different role during the Black Forest Fire than she during the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Tonight I interviewed a Fire Chief who worked both the Waldo Canyon Fire and the Black Forest fire. He was the person in charge during the Waldo Canyon fire; he was giving the orders to the firefighters on where they needed to go in order to fight fire. When I interviewed Mike he said mention that Waldo Canyon also had a personal affect on him, because he mentioned that neighbors lost their houses and things that were important to them. Both fires were human caused, but not exactly sure what started the fire. The resources were not scarce they had enough resources in order to put the fires out and they were assembling resources quickly. Colorado and Texas do not have a fire marshall over the fire stations and there are only two states. The rest of the states have fire marshall. Mike did mention that Waldo Canyon area still suffers from flooding occasionally and Black Forest also was faced with flooding as a concern. For people to help with prevention for wildfires people should mitigate their properties more and mitigating their properties will reduce the fuel loading for fires. Education is a big thing for people to understand that they need more space around their houses, because if there is a fire than with more space firefighters can save people’s houses and can fight the fire around the house. The last thing for prevention is to do mitigation on water shed and doing more to educate people and to work together on the mitigation and education. Once when we train the public people to respond better and to act better when there is an emergency. Training our first responders to do more and be more equipped for the future. The Black Forest fire was the most destruction fire in Colorado’s history. The Hayman fire is still the first largest fire Colorado has seen. Thursday I have two interviews and then on Saturday morning I will have my last interview.

The last of my interviews to be conducted will be happening next week. I will be doing in the early evening; I will also be doing a phone interview next Saturday. The second to last interview will either be on Monday or the following week. The last interview will also be sometime in the afternoon next week. I will be interviewing a Fire Chief I will ask him questions about the fires and will be seeing his perspective on moisture levels and how much moisture we need to stay avoid high red flag days. The following two people all work in the water department at Colorado Springs Utility. I will also be interviewing someone from the Emergency Management Coordination team at Colorado Springs Utility. Linda who I will be interviewing has personal story with the Waldo Canyon Fire she lives in the second evacuation area. The neighborhood was evacuated after mountain shadows, which was the first evacuation area. The Mountain Shadows neighborhood was the closest neighborhood to the fire when it came over the ridge. Linda’s lived in mountains shadows neighborhood and he lost his house in the fire. Once when I conduct the interviews and I am done with the interviews I will have a diverse overview, different perspectives. I will have different perspectives from the fireside of things, water and the Emergency management side. I just have to set up times with people, but hopefully they all are next in the beginning of the week. Once when I have the information from the interviews I will be able to finish my annotated bib.  I am going to start working on my paper this weekend and hopefully finish the paper by the end of next week if not the week after.

Today I read my last source from a person at the Colorado Springs Utility Company. Erin Duran provided me with a After Action report on the Waldo Canyon Fire. The report includes the dates of when the fire to when the fire was 100% contained. When the Waldo Canyon fire was burning it burned in two counties in Colorado Springs. When the fire started it originally started in Pike National Forest, which is three miles west of Colorado Springs. The fire started at noon, people saw smoke. Before recent fire Waldo Canyon was the most destructive fire that Colorado Springs had seen. The fire destroyed over 347 homes. When they did the action report the fire is listed as a type one incident. With the fire response was a little slow, but people learned to respond quicker in the future. The Waldo Canyon fire provided a lot of learning for future fires.  A lot of people did respond quickly, but not everyone responded quickly. When the fire started they originally thought that it would probably not jump the reservoir and come over the ridge, but with the wind blowing in a different direction the fire jumped the reservoir and came over the ridge. People were on evacuations quickly and there was a lot of traffic of people being evacuated.  All of the Colorado Springs emergency crews have plans, policies and procedures when a fire happens. They evacuate the people who are closest to the fire and make sure they get them out and then proceed with all of the other neighborhoods that are also in danger. Jane who I interviewed evacuated for the Waldo Canyon fire she put a sign on her house door saying that her and her family were evacuated, so the police or firefighters did not have to check their house for them to make sure that they got out. The community of Colorado Springs came together to help pit everyone who was affected by the Waldo Canyon fire.

After the Waldo Canyon Fire the neighborhoods affected would have the concern of flooding, because when it would rain, but the water would flow into the town of Manitou, Woodland park and into other places where the fire burned. When it would rain in Colorado these places would be under flash floods warnings. This would continue for 2-3 years after the fire. The affects after the Black Forest fire would be people did not have a lot of privacy with their trees, because the of trees burned where people had to rebuild their houses. They are still getting used to not having as many trees as they did before the fire. There is regrowth happening in the Black Forest area, but it will take more years for all the trees to grow back or for most of the trees to come back. People in Black Forest had to cut down a lot of trees of their properties that had been burned by the fire. They also learned how zeroscaping and mitigating their property. After the Black Forest Fire the water in the river that runs from Black Forest to across the interstate over to Woodmen an area in Colorado close to Waldo Canyon fire. People noticed the water in the river was black. The water was black, because of the pollution from the Black Forest and what they were using to put the fire out. When the Waldo Canyon fire was burning the people over in Black Forest could breathe in the smoke, especially when the wind change directions and was blowing the smoke from the fire over to the Black Forest area. From both fires and being on opposite sides of town, both sides were feeling the affects from both fires. The flooding has gotten better over in the Waldo Canyon fire burn scar, because their has continually been regrowth over the six years. Manitou and Woodland Park are no longer affected by the flooding as they used to be, but occasionally their still will be flash flood warnings. Especially when it is pouring in Colorado.

When the Black Forest Fire started it was on the hottest day in June that was on record and it was the same when Waldo Canyon fire started. I found this in my research when I was looking for my sources. I went on the weather channel website and found a link that can take you back to the days and years the fires started.  When I found the day and the year on the weather channel website gave me the temperatures and the temperatures were in the high 90s when both fires started. This summer has been worst with Colorado being in drought. Before 2012 and 2013 were the worst summers for drought and fires and 2018 is following in the same pattern and when Colorado had the Hayman fire Colorado was in the same conditions. My next steps in my independent study are to upload pictures of Waldo Canyon of the fire and Black Forest fire to my computer and then put them on my blog. People can see a visual of both fires. In doing my research I have found that if we don’t receive an average amount of snowfall or above average snowfall. Then we are hoping for big snowstorms come March and April and for a lot of rain. The snowfall can really hurt Colorado especially if we don’t receive enough moisture. 

When Colorado does have big fires we are pulling a ton of resources from all over the state to help get containment of the fire. Once when a fire is burning for a while usually it will start to rain, but then lighting, becomes a factor, because the lighting could start another wildfire. Ever since the two big fires and this summer with more fires. People are starting to pay more attention to red flag days and knowing that our fire danger is really high and then some other people may not care about red flag days. My next steps are to interview four people and finish my annotated bib, post pictures and start writing my paper.

Today I went to Black Forest to take pictures of where the fire burned. The fire started a couple miles from the school Edith Wolford. The firefighters had to let the houses burn located by the school in order to save the school. The firefighters had a tuff choice to make. They saved both schools in located in Black Forest Edith Wolford and School in the Woods and Black Forest has multiple churches all the churches were also saved during the fire. The firefighters also saved as many homes that they could save. I will be interviewing four specialist sometime next week and interviewing them on their perspective on both Waldo Canyon Fire and Black Forest Fire and I will also be asking them questions about how our moisture levels effect our wildfire season. One of the people I will be interviewing Erin Duran provided me with an After Action Report on the Waldo Canyon Fire.

            I will also be posting pictures of the Waldo Canyon Fire on the blog. The pictures are of the fire burning and the night the fire came over the ridge. The pictures of Black Forest are pictures five years after the fire burned. The trees in this area are still black, because they were burned, but there is starting regrowth in these areas. Where I took pictures today there were piles of wood that had been cut down to start cleaning and to also start mitigating. Since the fire people have been doing a lot of mitigating on their properties and other places in Black Forest. 

            I did conduct another interview with a person who was evacuated during the Waldo Canyon Fire. Her name is Amanda when I asked her questions she said that the amount of moisture did have an effect on our fire season especially, because their was so much tree growth in the area. The area had not seen as much growth in years passed as it saw in 2012. When the fire started it was intense, because their was a drought in June and the tress burned, because they were so dry.

Independent study on low moisture levels and fire

This summer I am doing an independent study in my hometown of Colorado Springs. The research that I am conducting this summer is on our low moisture levels contributing to the Waldo Canyon Fire that happened in the summer of 2012 and Black Forest Fire happening in the summer of 2013. When I was doing my research in the beginning I found out that in the winters of 2012 and 2013 Colorado Springs did not receive a lot of snow. Then in June the temperatures were hotter and the hotter the temperature the dryer the land was during the time when both fires started. While I was conducting interviews and looking at sources I started to form a hypothesis that when the Hayman fire started the Springs was dry and in June we were pushing 90s, then in 2012 the springs was dry and the temperature in Junes was in the 90s. The same thing happened in 2013 when Black Forest started there was not a lot of moisture the temperatures were in the in 90s again. This summer the pattern is the same, because we had a very dry winter and not a lot of rain in the springtime. The temperature in June was in the 90s and high 90s and now there are multiple fires in the state. I have interviewed three people and will interview two or three more people. The people interviewed so far shared there experience what is like during the time of the fire when they had to evacuate. I interviewed one from the Waldo Canyon Fire and the other two people I interviewed were from the Black Forest Fire. They all shared what their thoughts were when the Waldo Canyon Fire and Black Forest Fire happened. The years when Colorado Springs had received a lot of snow in the winters the land was as dry and there was not as many red flag warnings.

HCCA Internship Wrap-Up

    As the school year comes to a close, so does my internship with HCCA. When I first thought of non-profit conservation work, I thought of "fighting" on the front lines towards their causes and getting my hands dirty in the field. Although this is a big part of non-profit conservation work, one of the largest pieces that gets overlooked is the work done to plan events to get their work done or raise money and outreach and communicate to it's members or followers about these events and other causes. All of the emails, letters, volunteer coordination and event planning gets done in the background and really creates the structure for a non-profit's progress.
    I learned a ton during this semester with HCCA that I can use--and have used already--both in school and with other non-profits or organizations that I do/will work with. I have gained experience with soliciting donations, event advertisements, promoting an organization to gain support verbally or monetarily, organized event structure/agenda, organize volunteers, write concise and interesting informational "blurbs" to teach members about important topics, keeps members engaged through emails, newsletters, letters, and cards, and begin to think about ways to connect HCCA with more students at Western.
    Since joining HCCA as a member this past summer and now having worked for them for a semester, I have been able to see two sides of this conservation non-profit. This past summer I was able to volunteer with them and participate in cleanups, restoration work, and attend member events getting to follow along and hear about HCCA's work. Although this internship wasn't exactly what I was expecting when joining the HCCA team, it was really cool to be able to work on the other side of what I had experienced before and gain new skills that I will definitely utilize.

WMP Meeting Success!

    Last Thursday was the Watershed Management Planning Meeting Event. Everything came together: the volunteers, the speakers, and the attendees. The presentations were solid, the questions asked and answers given were great and informative, and I think I did a good job of mediating the meeting. Once the meeting started, I knew it was going to go well, but I was nervous about representing all views on this issue. Water issues can get pretty heated and I didn't want to push anyone away from this conversation by saying something wrong. I tried to make my questions very general in order to prevent this from happening and not show an agreeing viewpoint while asking questions because I wanted to be neutral. The panel questions turned out to be really great and even stirred up conversation from the audience. Overall, it was a success!
    I know it may seem like I'm going way out of my way in order to stay neutral, but in our current political climate I think this is so important. Instead of letting my generation become as polarized as generations before us have become, I want to spread this idea of coming at an issue as neutral. This doesn't mean that you can't take a side on an issue; taking sides are how discussion and conversations are successful because there are differing viewpoints to keep the conversation going. In order to have a productive future when it comes to the effects of climate change or the future of our watershed, we need to have an open mind when going after solving it.

WMP Event Planning

    Event planning is off and running! The room is booked, the final details are being worked out, and volunteers are being recruited. I have recruited students from one ENVS class so far and am onto another this afternoon to do the same. I have given group one tasks of emailing clubs on campus, creating posters, submitting PSAs to newsletters and radio stations, and creating a food list to purchase for the event. Each student only has one small task out of these and will give them experience setting up/advertising for an event. Group two will be tasked with distributing posters and flyers around campus and around the community and emailing any of the remaining groups on the list.
    This biggest piece I've been trying to figure out is how to structure the actual event itself. Is a panel the best way to go? What about just presentations? Should we go over the long survey that's available to the public? I want this to not only be an informational event, but an entertaining event as well. I want this to not only be a learning event but an engaging one. Under what event format will I be able to achieve both of these? This is what I'll be working on this week the most.
   

Watershed Management Planning

    One of HCCA's largest goals for this year is looking at watershed management planning as the population of the west continues to grow and the demand for water increases. Since our community is at one of the major headwaters of the Colorado, we have both the responsibility to manage it in a way that provides for our community, but also provides for other communities down stream. The biggest piece of watershed management is planning so that each use of water can be met. These uses range from agriculture to recreation. These management steps are taken in order to protect our current water needs so if implications should arise in the future, the plans to solve them have already been thought through.
    Combining my internship's goal of outreach and connecting Western to HCCA and a service learning project for one of my classes, I have decided to put on a Watershed Management Planning Meeting. The goal of this meeting is to inform students and the community about watershed management, why it's important, and what they can do to help. This meeting will include speakers from all different backgrounds: Julie Nania from HCCA, Jesse Kruthaupt from Trout Unlimited, and Frank Kugel from the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District. They will give short presentations from their point of view on this issue and how the valley is working to move forward on watershed management.
    Students from ENVS 100 classes will be helping me get everything in order. Together, we will make posters, contact clubs around campus, send out PSA's to newspapers and radio stations, and brainstorm how to advertise this event in other ways. It's important to get this topic as far out there as we can because it really can affect everyone. Survey's will be handed out during this event as well. The more feedback we can get about this process the better. The more diverse feedback we can get the even better off that we are! It's so important to get points of view from a large range of people from different backgrounds in order to make watershed management decisions about a resource used by all.

Informing the Public on Local Topics

    As a conservation association, it's part of the mission of the organization to bring people together and to strengthen the community around your local environment. Not only should the organization work on specific issues, but should be a place to learn more information about the environment and the places they protect as well. My job this past week has been to put together some informational paragraphs that HCCA can use in their newsletters, emails, and outreach materials. The topics I've been researching include land use designations, the tracking of environmental legislation and the navigation of NEPA and the ESI, the current state of our snow pack, drought in the Colorado River Basin, and trends in earlier runoff (tied to climate and other influences). These topics are extremely important this year, as we experience high winter temperatures and a very low snowfall year.
    Although I strive to keep a continuous flow of knowledge about local issues or topics connected to them, I had to research quite a bit of information. A couple of these topics stood out for different reasons. One of the biggest pieces of information I have learned since moving to Colorado has been about land designations and their uses. I had never visited a wilderness area before and although I knew about them, I had never experienced their (mostly) untouched beauty. Since I like to get out there as much as I can, I was quick to learn about all of these different areas and what they're used for. This one was easy to describe and write about because it's something that I've looked into a lot. Tracking environmental legislation and navigating NEPA and the ESI was something I didn't know much about. I knew a couple of databases and sites that were good for tracking environmental legislation, but I was a foreigner when it came to NEPA and ESI. Drought in the Colorado River Basin was tricky because I knew of the effect of drought in Wisconsin on its flat, agricultural lands. With this topic, however, I had to learn how it affects mountainous regions. This topic is especially relevant because of our low snow year and the worries for the dryer seasons to come.
    Overall, informing the public about different topics can really help to grow a community. In HCCA's case, it helps keep our community get involved in local issues or gets them thinking about topics they may not have thought of before.

New and Exciting Things Ahead

    Now that the biggest event of my semester and of HCCA's year is over, I can focus on what I've been most excited for during this internship: working on outreach material for HCCA's newsletters, website, emails, and action alerts and connecting Western with HCCA. Although I'm not working on any current projects, I'll let you all know what is in the works for the near future. First, I have a list of prompts from the outreach director to be used to write small blips of information to get our members and beyond pumped about local conservation, protection, and politics. This includes tactics on how to get involved, information to teach our community something new, or just inspiring words to get our members and beyond into action. Second, I have a service learning project for my ENVS 350 course this semester. I want to do something related with local politics as we are engaging the ENVS 100 students in this project and I think it would be a great idea to expose them to local politics firsthand. The outreach director suggested planning and hosting a watershed management planning meeting as this is something that HCCA has in the works for this upcoming year too. Third, I am tasked with finding ways to connect HCCA with Western students in any way I can come up with. At this point I've only thought of tabling at events or combining efforts with existing organizations and groups on campus to put on events or support causes.
    There are lot's of great things coming up for the rest of the semester. I'm definitely excited to see what I can accomplish. Stay tuned!

The Annual Red Lady Salvation Ball Event!

    This past week was all about the last few preparations for the Ball. I spent the majority of my nights this week creating information sheets about each silent auction prize as well as a bid sheet to accompany them. This was a lot of going back and forth between emails and word documents, finding pictures off of websites, creating descriptions for each prize, and making sure I was listing all of the monetary values correctly. In the end they turned out awesome! A lot of people were pumped about the silent auction prizes, so I'm glad all my help with solicitations was worth it!
    Saturday was the day of the Ball. I met with my internship supervisor, Mel, in the morning to go over the detail of the event later that day. This would help me know what to do and allow me to help other volunteers know what to do too. We then loaded all of the decorations, signs, tables, and such into the car and headed over. Decorating went smoothly. We had 5 people total helping to decorate the entire interior and doorway of The Eldo. Although I originally thought that 5 people was going to be too little of an amount, decorating went smoothly. We covered the inside and the doorway with every red material we had; we even swapped out the white light bulbs for red!
    I was set at the door checking the ticket list, selling tickets, and putting on wristbands. I had no idea how crazy people would dress up for this event! Old prom dresses, red costumes like morph-suits or long suits and top hats, masks, makeup, you name it! The guests attending went all out! Eventually I went to the raffle table and sold raffle tickets and band merchandise. For the rest of the evening I went back and forth between those two stations, helping out where ever I could.
    Although I haven't heard the final total on how many guests attended or what the final total of money raised was, it looked like a good turnout. We didn't come as close to selling out as we wanted, but the silent auction and the raffle sales seemed to go really well! In the end, learning all about setting up a fundraising event that was more than just a regular fundraising event has been a great experience.

Final Red Lady Salvation Ball Week!

    It's the week of the Ball! That means closing up on all things donations and starting prep for the event itself. I learned a lot from soliciting donations, but it's definitely not something I would want to do all day. My tasks this past week and this upcoming week have been/are writing thank you's to all of our awesome community businesses or members who donated to the silent auction and raffle, creating info sheets for the prizes, and creating bidding sheets for the silent auction.
    It has been fun to go through this process and gain the experience of how this all works. I remember riding around in the car with my mom while she solicited donations for our boy scout troop in the town where I'm from. Seeing this process and going through this process are definitely two completely different things. As I see myself paying more attention to what jobs I want in the future, I believe that any experience I can gain from any type of organization, business, group, etc. is beneficial. I will be able to apply these experiences to different situations I am faced with in the future. As far as soliciting donations goes, I know that if put in this same position again I'll know exactly what to do.
    As always, the Red Lady Salvation Ball is THIS SATURDAY, February 17th, starting at 7:30pm at the Eldo in Crested Butte. Tickets are being sold all week. You know you want to put on your favorite red clothes, hang out with some fun community members, win or bid on some awesome prizes, jam out to the funk of The Pimps of Joytime, and especially help support your local HCCA working to keep Red Lady mine free!

Donation Solicitation Round #3

    I was hoping this past week would be the end of it. Too many business owners were out of town or too busy all week in order to close it off completely. It's not an awful process, but it's not an incredibly fun process either. This process is a great way to raise money for  HCCA and so I am committed to it until the end! This past week of solicitations went very well. I was able to get confirmations from businesses, pick up a couple of donations, and be able to start checking solicitation related items off of my to-do list. On top of that, posters were hung around town and on campus. Slowly but surely things are coming together.
    Sometimes when working for a cause centered around the environment, you don't always see results right away. That can be a little deflating especially when you're putting a lot of work into it. While fundraisers don't seem like a huge step in the process, they are extremely important in facilitating the work done for the cause. These indirectly affecting steps in the problem-solution process can be the most rewarding psychologically. You see results right away, whether that's via the physical donations, the money made on them, or just the support of the community and the people that show up.
    So long story short, I did wish this past week would have been the last week of soliciting. However, I will admit that the physical, psychological, and emotional rewards do feel pretty good. I know I'm helping to help a great organization doing some great things and that within itself feels the greatest overall.
    As always...the Red Lady Salvation Ball is February 17th, starting @ 7:30 in The Eldo. Come dressed in your favorite casual or classy red attire and enjoy great music, great prizes, great food and drink, and great company. Or in other words, come feed your physical, psychological, and emotional needs with this direct link to supporting HCCA!
   

Donation Solicitation Round #2

     Preparations for the Red Lady Salvation Ball are still underway. This week was the second of 3 weeks of soliciting donations from Gunnison and Crested Butte. Last week I hit Gunnison and this week I hit Crested Butte.I have also been emailing resorts/inns outside of our valley as well. This coming week is the week to follow up on any businesses I haven't heard from yet. I honestly didn't know how much I was going to have to keep track of during this process.
    I got a lot of good initial response this past week in Crested Butte as I did in Gunnison the week before, but haven't been getting any many final responses. I can officially say that three businesses have officially said they would donate. As great as that is, this upcoming week is the last week to officially commit to donating. I'm getting a little nervous my list of donation will remain short. Now I know the people handling the forms I dropped off own businesses and have busy lives, I'm not putting them down for that at all, I'm just excited to see what my work around our valley can bring in for HCCA during the Ball's silent auction and raffle.
    As this week finishes up, I'm preparing for the followups, phone calls, and emails I will have to send this upcoming week in order to finalize the donation list for the event in time. I am excited to see my work pay off and to see this community come together around saving the places in this valley that we love!
    Don't forget, The Red Lady Salvation Ball is on February 17th @ 7:30pm in The Eldo in Crested Butte! Wear your favorite casual or dressy red attire, come enjoy beverages and h'orderves, listen to some great music, and spend some time with your fellow valley goers to help keep Red Lady free!

Intro to HCCA Internship & Solicitation Intimidation Overcome by Our Strong Community

     It's week one of my internship with the High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA). A really quick backstory for those of you that don't know HCCA. Crested Butte's mayor, W. Mitchell, 40 years ago and a group of citizens and locals went full force against a mining company that was trying to mine Red Lady (Mt. Emmons) for molybdenum (the steel additive that makes all of our steel recreation toys even lighter and easier for use to use). Really long story short, they fought hard against the mining company and won, keeping Red Lady safe to this day 41 years later. I highly encourage you to read more about mayor Mitchell here http://crestedbuttenews.com/2017/07/profile-the-unsinkable-w-mitchell/ and the whole history of the fight to save Red Lady here https://www.hccacb.org/red-lady-program/red-lady-timeline/ (as well as watch James Cameron's Avatar because mayor mayor Mitchell is who he unofficially based that story off of!).
    I first heard about HCCA when I moved here this past June. I quickly became a member and attended every event that I could. Why? Well in Wisconsin where I had grown up, the only environmental issues our state usually came across were unprotected wetlands, invasive species (carp and zebra mussels are two big ones, and small mines for silica sand (a really fine type of sand that is used by fracking plants to fill in the fissures in the wells used to extract natural gas). The land in Wisconsin is either a forest, wetland/a lake, or a field, typically having only one use. It was to my surprise when I got here, just what effect mining has had, and still has, in regions all around Colorado. I had learned about mountain top mining and other resource extraction tactics in my Environmental Science classes but had never experienced them. I remember my first drive over Monarch pass or past the mine near leadville, the companies having "eaten" half or almost all of the mountain. I couldn't believe it. I never thought someone could just destroy a piece of our natural world and be okay with it. Mining's impact in this state and HCCA's backstory proving just what can happen if you come together pushed me towards joining their organization right away.
    Anyways, everyone at HCCA is in full preparation for their annual Red Lady Salvation Ball. For the past 41 years, they've been holding a huge fundraiser in order to rise funds to continue to keep Red Lady mine-free. The fee of the tickets and the silent auction bring in about $10,000 every year from the citizens of Crested Butte, locals from the valley, the members of HCCA, and the original group that helped to save Red Lady. Since the silent auction brings in a big chunk of the funds, everyone is looking for some really awesome prizes to be able to use.
    Since HCCA is a non-profit organization and will be using the funds to help the work that they do, the best way to get awesome prizes without paying a lot for them or without paying anything at all are by getting donations from businesses. That means that it was my job to solicite donations from businesses too. Now, I'm not a shy person, but I'm definitely not an outgoing person either. This definitely comes into play when I'm talking about money. For example, I hate being a cashier when someone's credit card fails. Even though it's not my fault, I get really nervous when I have to tell someone that it failed and they're going to have to pay with something else. What if I say something in an offensive way? What if they don't have anything else to pay with? What if that makes them nervous too? It's kind of an irrational fear because again, it's not my fault. But you get the point.
    I have been tasked with sending out PSA's and soliciting donations from local businesses in Gunnison this week to start off. And as you may have figured, I was very intimidated to solicit donations. I made a list of businesses in Gunnison I thought would donate awesome prizes on Monday...and then pushed off the whole go-to-the-business-and-ask-for-a-donation process until Friday. Nervously, I walked into my first business on Friday and tried it out. I gave my pitch, asked if they would be interested and to my surprise, they were more than willing to give a donation than I expected! (Now I did mention the tax credit that businesses and people receive when they donate to a non-profit...but I'm going to stick with the idea that my pitch crushed it!) The rest of the businesses on my list reacted the same way and were excited for the challenge of putting together an awesome prize.
   Tax credit or not, I was surprised and appreciative of the way the community was so willing to give in order to support HCCA. I no longer have as much solicitation intimidation as I started with and am excited to see the community turnout at the event!
    Speaking of the event and my task to send out PSA's...

"It’s time to SAVE THE DATE and get your tickets for the 41^st Annual Red Lady Salvation Ball featuring the Pimps of Joytime!

 

Get ready to break out your best red dress, duds and dancing shoes to join High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA) for the 41^stAnnual Red Lady Salvation Ball featuring the Pimps of Joytime on Saturday, February 17, 2018 at the Eldo in Crested Butte. The Pimps of Joytime will bring the funk as we dance and come together to celebrate 41 years of keeping Red Lady mine-free. Additionally, the renowned Red Lady Ramblers will start off the evening during the happy hour featuring complimentary appetizers and cocktail specials. Tickets are $45 and include a 1-year HCCA membership. There will also be a silent auction, the legendary raffle and the 41st Red Lady coronation. Visit www.hccacb.org/events/red-lady-ball to get your tickets today!"